THE SWAMP

I was alone in a swamp under the sea. I was breathing air and listening
to the sounds of hundreds of frogs, turtle doves, the occasional laugh
of a kingfisher. It's strange to think that this is the lowest swamp
system on earth, down here in the Jordan rift valley, suffused with the
sultry, sulphurous air of the Dead Sea, a swamp of almost dwarf cypress
and giant reeds.

But the swamp was far from dead. I thought of the jungle- inpenetrable,
humid and singing with life. I walked, alert, looking, listening. So
much life! Dragonflies droned by purposefully. Above, swallows swang
around and around in an orgy of feeding. Sometimes a spur-winged plover
would reel upwards, crying piercingly- "sik sik sik!" pied and harlequin
neat. What were the kingfishers? I know that both pied and white
breasted live in the area. I've seen pied here before, a pair heading
over to Jordan, and I've seen white breasted at Eyn Geddi, not too far
away. I know the call of the latter- a foreshortened kookaburra like
cry, but I don't know the call of the pied. No doubt they are here to
hunt the frogs, which croak into an unearthly chorus from time to time,
competing with the hidden doves.

The women I came with I left far behind, daubing themselves with mud,
wallowing in the shadows, fussing with their children, herding like
contented cattle, soaking in the atmosphere and oily seeming waters
where they floated like otters. They were enjoying themselves in their
way, but the herd instinct was strong, and kept them grouped and bundled
in their patches whereas I roamed abroad, breaking free of their limits.

Life is a miracle. If we could truly appreciate how much of a miracle we
would feel so much more awe. The figures that Dr. Spetner presents give
me some idea of the truth, but still the dimensions of it are
inconceivable. We still do not understand on a deep level the design of
nature. Partly this is because we, because of our secular training, do
not acknowledge that this is indeed intelligent design, and partly
because we have not yet been acquainted with every aspect and subtlety
in the design of the meanest life around us.

True, in the dimension of space we have seen and described many wonders,
down to the resolution of the electron microscope. In the realms of time
we have only just begun our explorations. We can see Hashem in what
happens. What really happens over time, from the building of a protein
molecule to the history of a lion pride, in this, if we look with
discerning eyes, we would perceive the hand of hashgacha clalit.